Related Breaking News

Brookfield Engineering Laboratories Inc. has provided a multi-station viscosity control solution to Prairie State Group (PSG), a custom printer and laminator of flexible packaging and pressure sensitive labels near Chicago, IL, USA.

The new AST-100 MultiPlo Viscosity Control System installed at Prairie State was the result of a collaborative effort with Sun Chemical.
The ink supplier worked with Brookfield to supply a multi-station ink viscosity control system to allow higher efficiency when running their inks on Prairie States’ PCMC Evolution and Revolution presses. PCMC (Paper Converting Machine Company) regularly uses the Brookfield AST-100 for viscosity control on its presses.

Because these presses were not originally supplied with viscosity controls, Brookfield’s sales and service team was able to customize a system that integrated seamlessly. “Other than Brookfield’s superior products, we also demanded a strategic partner who could help us find a custom solution," says Dan Doherty, executive vice president of operations and principal at Prairie State Group. “Brookfield helped get us up and running as quickly and efficiently as possible and they have gone above and beyond in supporting us. In less than one year we have experienced a positive return on investment and will be able to increase our efficiency and productivity going forward with Brookfield on our side.”

“In printing, the name of the game is to keep the presses running,” Doherty adds. “By using Brookfield’s viscometers and partnering with Sun Chemical we have been able to reduce our ink costs with consistent runs. Very tight control of viscosity dramatically increases the mileage of the ink. Eliminating the need for most of our manual cup measurements also saves us money. It used to take almost one half hour just to measure and adjust the full eight stations. With the new control system that time is used elsewhere, while completely automating our process and maintaining ink consistency. Our operators tell us they can now open the presses up and let them run at full speed. The consistency we get from Brookfield’s AST is also critically important when it comes to color matching for our clients brands. We are using viscometers on 15 stations and couldn’t be happier with Brookfield. They have made an immediate impact on our return on investment within the first year.”